technology, education and training research from an industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologist in the ivory tower

I/O Grad School Series

So you want to go to graduate school in industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology? Lots of decisions, not much direction. I bet I can help!

While my undergraduate students are lucky to be at a school with I/O psychologists, many students interested in I/O psychology aren’t at schools with people they can talk to. I/O psychology is still fairly uncommon in the grand scheme of psychologists; there are around 7,000 members of SIOP, the dominant professional organization of I/O, compared to the 150,000 in the American Psychological Association, and only about 2,000 people have the job title, “I/O Psychologist.” As a result, many schools simply don’t have faculty with expertise in this area, leading many promising graduate students with no exposure to I/O psychology to apply elsewhere. That’s great from the perspective of I/O psychologists – lots of jobs – but not so great for grad-students-to-be or the field as a whole.

As a faculty member at ODU with a small army of undergraduate research assistants, I often find myself answering the same questions over and over again about graduate school. So why not share this advice with everyone?

This series covers the graduate school application process by year, starting in your Sophomore year of college, up through a preview of your first year. I have also provided some advice for those wishing to change trajectories from an existing career into I/O psychology. Check out each with the links below: